Tuesday, December 18. 2018

The matching grant provided by the Milwaukee Road Historical society has made it possible to begin this phase of the Mt. Harvard restoration. Paul Cronin and I formulated a plan of action before the exterior work was even started. We decide to repair all the damaged and rusted sections all in one time frame. By removing all the "problems" we could then purchase enough steel and supplies at one time helping to reduce the costs of materials. Paul contacted Gregg Wolfersheim and a work schedule was formulated to remove the old damaged steel sections. This is what you will see with these photos.

Gregg and I removed the vestibule door and trap to reveal the wall condition.

This is the area where the new stars will be secured and installed.

Here he is cutting out the old steel to be replace with new.

An overall look of the damaged section.

Here is what it looks like after Gregg removed and cleaned the area.

This is another job that needs to be repaired. The rusted area was partially removed when the sleeper was at Mid Continent RR Museum. Now we intend to remove and repair the entire area.

Gregg removed even more rusty steel to reveal a much larger area to restore.

The length of this repair is about 25 feet. Not any easy job to fix!

Gregg is smiling after his job has been completed.

Top view of the vestibule with the floor tile removed.

The rubber floor tile has been removed showing the thin floor steel.

This is a view of the other side of the Mt. Harvard with the trap and vestibule door having been removed revealing more rusty steel.

Remember there is still time to contribute to the match! Act by December 31 to double
your impact! Your support will help accomplish our goal for the Mt. Harvard! Thanks Roger

Tuesday, December 4. 2018

I am happy to be announcing a new matching grant! This time for the Mt. Harvard. A commitment from the membership of the Milwaukee Road Historical Society for a matching grant places our Mt. Harvard in a good position to operate in a limited time frame for next year. This is a one to one matching grant up to $1,500.00! It is an important step towards bring the Mt. Harvard back to operational status. Please consider a donation. You can be confident that every dollar matched will be wisely used in this restoration.

Sandi is prepping the hallway for primer.

All taped and ready for painting.

Primed and ready for the next coat.

In the mean time, and not to be out done, Bob Olsen is continuing the removal of the old paint layer in the women's bathroom.

He is removing old paint beneath the mirrors.

This is what he has accomplished so far.

The wall by the sinks.

This area is still waiting for paint removal.

Gregg Wolfersheim is removing old rivets from the one good stair step. We are using this step as a pattern for the future rebuilt of many stairs need for the John Mcloughlin and the Mt. Harvard.

Thanks Roger

Monday, December 3. 2018

A lot of effort has gone into the interior since my last blog post about our restoration efforts on Mt. Harvard. We have finished painting the kitchen and installed all of the shelving and parts that we could find in the sleeper. Our three or four person team has now switch its focus to the hallway leading to the vestibule stair area. Bob Olsen has now moved into the women's bathroom and is beginning to remove all the old wall and ceiling paint.

We just painted these small door panel belonging to the electrical locker.

More small doors some for the John Mcloughlin.

Much of the kitchen was primed at Mid Continent but we are sanding that same area and priming it again.

Here I am priming a wall in the small kitchen.

This view is looking into the kitchen from the obs room.

Sandi priming the area. The masked off area beneath the window is the sink.

Sandi, the happy painter at work.

Wall finally painted. Next we will install locks and handles.

Another wall painted in the small kitchen.

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Bob Olsen holding his favorite tool, the heat gun.

Removal of old paint in the womens bathroom has begun.

The lounge is also functioning as a small assembling and storage area.

Thanks Roger

Tuesday, November 27. 2018

The long awaited exterior restoration of the crane finally began in earnest this last August. Under the direction of Jeff Calendine from the steam dept this project is now near completion. When completed the Bay City Crane will provide a mobile 15 ton lift capacity tool to serve the museums many future projects. The plan was to remove all the steel panels surrounding the mechanicals; then sandblast each using museum tools and personnel, prime and paint and finally reinstall each. The first scheduled project for the crane is the lifting and re-installation of the Union Pacific steam locomotive UP 428 rebuilt cab.

Sandblasting has started with the first removed piece.

Here the old rusty fasteners are being removing with a grinding wheel.

More panels are removed.

Matt and his fellow volunteer are priming the interior steel support members.

The Father and Son team of Paul and Charley Voyda are priming more steel.

After each exterior panel was blasted they were then primed and later painted with a beautiful coat of yellow.

The next two pictures show the assembly of the newly painted panels.

What a beauty!

More assembling by the volunteers

Another view.

View from the front

As you can see this entire cab assemble was completed inside the steam shop. There was given a two week window to reassemble the cab and that goal was met. The road engine was then fired up and the entire crane was moved outside for the winter. A tarp was then wrapped around he crane cab set outside for the winter season. The Spring project will be to install the newly rebuilt boom, string new cable and test the various systems before certifying the machine for service. Thanks go to Jeff and his large crew for all their hard work. Please consider a donation the to Steam Department to keep all current projects advancing. Thanks Roger.

Saturday, November 10. 2018

About a month and a half ago I took a big step towards finishing the exterior of the IC 3345 coach. The end buffers were not installed when we painted the coach last year. Wanting to finally finish that part of the project I went into the storage field and found both of them. With the help from Jeff, from the steam department and operating the large fork lift, we moved them from the storage field to an area next to barn 10. This happened in the early spring of this year. This September I personally hired a contractor to abrade the exterior of both buffers. Kane DeKalb Dustless Blasting is the name of the contractor. The process involves using water as the medium mixed with in this case with fine particles of ground up glass to remove the old paint and rust. I would highly recommend its use on other projects around the museum for it worked very well. Anyway, they were prepped, blasted and primed on a Saturday and then top coated with two coats, of Sherwin Williams urethane paint on Sunday, September 22 of this year.

Before the contracting work has begun.

Kane DeKalb contractors . Photo

I just finished priming both buffers.

Another view.

Sunday was another beautiful fall day for painting. This is the finish coat.

What a difference sandblasting and painting will do for any piece. Painting makes anything look good. The next step is to finally install each buffer onto the coach and then finally move it into barn 3 for display. If you would like to help defray the cost of the removal please send your donation and mark it for the IC3345 fund. Thanks, Roger!

Friday, November 9. 2018

Yes, the 975 is receiving more paint from its painting friend, Gregg Wolfersheim. A coating of primer then the top coat of black paint sure makes the locomotive almost come to life.

Gregg here is priming the front near the drawbar.

Another view

More prep work on the drivers and running gear.

Coating the front with Black

1630 firing and the 975 right next door.

Firemens side of the engine.

Another view but now showing the smoke box painted.

Western view

Gregg painted the front of the smoke box with a silver color to imitate the original color

A straight on view. It still needs the headlight and markers.

Another view

A close-up of the driving wheels and running gear. As you can see there is still much to do.

The painting will continue until Gregg runs out of good 50 degree weather. Here is a future consideration for all you steam fans. Why not send in a donation to increase the 975 fund for its future storage inside. This engine with its new paint job needs to be protected. Help place this engine into our next new building!
Thanks Roger

Kirk Warner about More Mt Harvard PaintingThu, 08-23-2018 08:16Lots of hard work going into
achieving the nice finishes that
are being applied. The finished
product looks great! Is any of
your team still working [...]

Matt Maloy about Update... 428Wed, 08-22-2018 14:38If you want to keep up on the
Electric Department, Ted, I'd
recommend looking up the Hick Car
Works. A couple members from the
IRM Electric Car Dept [...]